I have driven both the first generation regular gasoline engine Ford Fusion and its cousin Mercury Milan as rental cars on business trips and I must say I was not particularly impressed. They are perfectly fine mid-size sedans, just nothing to write home about. But I’ve always been intrigued by the Fusion Hybrid. Here was an American sedan with a self-developed hybrid technology that got better mileage than a Toyota Camry? Beating Toyota, the company that started the hybrid craze, at its own game? This I had to see, and drive, for myself. So I was glad to have the chance to drive one down to LA for my sister’s wedding last weekend.

In the 1990s when the practical minivan began to seem passé, consumers turned their heads and wallets to the fledgling Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) market for some excitement to suit their new active lifestyles. The watchful eye of corporate marketing caught the emerging trend and aggressively promoted the ready-for-anything aura of the new Ford Explorer and instantly identifiable Jeep Cherokee. It worked.

Over the next 20 years manufacturers have refined the SUV from an inefficient 4 door truck glazed with rugged styling into some of the more sophisticated vehicles on the market. The crossover refinements have spawned a dizzying array of choices all called SUV or some variation if SUV (Think BMW’s sports activity vehicle designation for its X-series). While today’s models are much better than their forbearers, picking the best SUV/crossover is not as easy as it once was.

CarReview believes the current market has some great SUVs that do something better than the rest. To select the top 5, contributors used criteria that align with the original vision for the segment.

Since its debut some 20 years ago, the Explorer has sold over six million units, four million of which are still traversing the world’s roads. Through much of the late-1990s and early part of the last decade, the Explorer was Ford’s second-best-selling vehicle behind its F-Series pickups, regularly selling 400,000 units a year. Fast-forward to 2009, and that volume had plummeted to just over 52,000. Despite lackluster sales of SUVs since gas prices made a huge leap upwards and the trend towards downsizing the cars in which we drive, Ford believes it still has an opportunity. According to the automaker’s vice president of global marketing, Jim Farley, each year, at least 140,000 Explorer owners come back to Blue Oval dealerships looking to purchase new vehicles. And obviously, they just aren’t buying Explorers.

Small is the new black, at least when it comes to automobiles. With the economy still lagging and consumers adjusting to what looks to be permanent $3 per gallon gas, the days of selling millions of large SUVs per year are over and small cars may just become the hottest segment of the market.

For once, American car manufacturers appear to have taken notice. Chrysler dealers will soon start selling the pint sized Fiat 500 and GM has several new small cars in the works, but it is Ford who is probably most well positioned to capitalize on this trend, with the new for America Fiesta subcompact now available and a fully redesigned Focus coming next year. We finally had the chance to thoroughly review the new Fiesta and although we aren’t completely bowled over, we could see quite a few people finding plenty to like in Ford’s European best-seller.

Who wouldn’t want a ’68 Camaro or 64-1/2 Mustang in their garage – much less as their daily driver? I have lusted after a ’68 Camaro ever since I skipped school one day of my sophomore year in high school with my older brother’s friend. He had a bright orange 1968 Camaro – rusted out and torn up, but with a pumped up V8 engine and manual transmission. We practiced burn-outs for a few hours in an abandoned parking lot and then when all the kids were out front waiting for the buses, he performed an amazing display of power by leaving 30 feet of skid marks and plenty of smoke. Those were the days!

But that was then. Now I’m a middle-aged engineering professional and parent, working 50-60 hours per week with responsibilities at home too. Who has the time and money for the classic muscle car obsession? And for those that do, can you daily drive it? Would you daily drive it?

Driving Sports TV Episode #26: – Ken Block is well-known for his Gymkhana videos where he took his Subaru Impreza WRX STI rally car and effectively went all out, drifting, power sliding and doing all sorts of crazy things in specially designed locations. Now, Block wants to turn Gymkhana into an actual motorsport, and has announced the Gymkhana Grid and the Ken Block Invitational competitions. Plus, Ryan flies to San Francisco to test the all-new Ford Fiesta on an autocross course.

Driving Sports is an online publication and video series that strives to entertain, inform and engage. Click in every Wednesday at 10pm PST at drivingsports.com to watch a live streaming broadcast. If you can’t watch live, view the archives posted at drivingsports.com as well as their various syndication partners (YouTube, Streetfire, etc.)

The availability of mainstream electric vehicles (EV) is a lot closer than you realize. The Tesla Roadster (with its six-figure pricetag) and Mitsubishi i-MiEV are already being sold to the general public*. The Nissan Leaf is scheduled for a December 2010 launch and the Coda Sedan isn’t very far behind. Ford wants to be a player in the EV space and the Focus (along with the Transit Connect) are platforms being developed as pure electric vehicles.

The Ford Focus EV is based on the next-generation Ford Focus, a capable if not head-turning car. By choosing an existing platform, Ford will save the expense associated with developing a unique design. Ever since the second-generation Prius, with its iconic design, became a hit, automakers have adopted the idea that a hybrid car with an innovative high-tech drivetrain needs to scream out for attention. That’s the direction that Nissan is taking with the Nissan Leaf, due out in limited markets in late 2010. The Chevy Volt extended-range EV, the new Honda Insight, and the Lexus HS 250h are also original purpose-built designs.